Proposal on elevated highway in Vij gathers steam
VIJAYAWADA: If everything goes as planned, the city will get an elevated express highway from Screw-bridge on Bandar canal to Ramavarappadu ring road junction, nearly 4 km, which is a part of the national highway 16 (erstwhile NH-5) to ease traffic congestion in the city.
If the elevated highway comes up, there will be no traffic snarls mainly at the the Benz Circle junction as the traffic from the NH will take the elevated highway route.
According to official sources, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has recently asked the officials concerned to study the feasibility of constructing an elevated highway on the lines of PV Narasimha Rao elevated express highway at Hyderabad.
Sources said that Telugu Desam Party's local leaders were also more interested in the elevated highway than a flyover at the Benz Circle, which was proposed as a part of the Machilipatnam-Vijayawada highway expansion.
It is also said that the officials of the Vijayawada municipal corporation (VMC) are in favour of it as they are of the opinion that they may convert the existing highway into the dedicated corridor under the BRTS project once the elevated express highway comes into being.
It may be worth mentioning here that about 60,000 vehicles pass through the city everyday at the Benz Circle, the meeting point of the national highways 16 and 65 (erstwhile NH-9).
The Benz Circle is considered a major traffic bottleneck after the Indrakeeladri ghat road at the temple. Meanwhile, the contracting agency of the Vijayawada-Machilipatnam NH, Madhucon Infra Limited, is yet to take up the expansion works.
In view of this, the proposed flyover at Benz Circle may be shelved and the elevated highway proposal may take off. On being asked about the elevated highway, Vijayawada NHAI project director G Sridhar said that there was no such proposal officially as of now.
News Posted: 7 August, 2014
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